Village teams up with Schlage to give locks to neighborhoods

Reducing crime in local neighborhoods is an important priority to Schlage, a security company based in Indiana, and Wellington's Neighborhood Watch Programs.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The National Neighborhood Watch Program, Schlage donated 400 of the company's new alarmed locks to Neighborhood Watch Programs in more than 40 cities throughout the country. The good news is that 10 of the locks have made their way to Wellington.

"The locks will be divided between the three most active neighborhood watches within the community – Greenview Shores, Rye Terrace and Pine Valley," Wellington neighborhood advocate Scott Campbell said.

The plan is to use the locks as an incentive to get people to attend meetings, he added. The locks will be raffled off, with residents receiving a raffle ticket for each meeting they attend. The more meetings they go to the better chance they have of winning the alarmed locks.

"We want to make neighborhood watch programs in Wellington more sustainable," said Wellington neighborhood advocate Meredith Tuckwood. "It is not about reacting to crime but instead preventing crime and being a better neighbor."

Schlage officials said that recent data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation reveals that nearly 70 percent of home break-ins are caused by forced entry. To help increase home safety, the company has come up with a residential door lock with an audible built-in alarm sensor that alerts those close by the moment there is activity at the door.

According to Schlage brand manager Paige Muhlenkamp the alarmed locks, which usually sell for $99 online, have three settings, which the resident can set depending on their needs, she said.

"The alarms are fairly easy to install," she said. "The use a triple A battery, which lasts for up to three years."

They include forced entry alert where the unit comes preset and sounds a shrill, steady siren for three minutes when a significant force occurs, such as when someone tries to kick in the door. The second is the tamper alert, which sounds a 15-second siren when the door knob or lever has been disturbed. The most sensitive alert setting, it detects the slightest movement at the handle and can act as a deterrent. Last is the activity alert, which sounds two short beeps every time the door opens or closes, making it perfect for monitoring when people enter or exit the home.

This is the first time that Schlage has joined forces with the Neighborhood Watch Programs to do something like this, Muhlenkamp said. "But, it makes sense we joined forces since we are both interested in keeping neighborhoods safe."